There were no thunderstorms forecast. Even so the sky behind the climbing roses turned black, as white petals shone brilliant in the last of sun. As the raindrops began to fall, the smile faded from his face, dissolved into the torrent which swirled round the house. He watched, stranded, with nowhere to go. He hadn't anticipated that either. When the rain stopped and the water level dropped and all that was left was the mud, he got out the power hose and switched on the tap.

A stroke of light drawn across the night sky wakens the cockerel who shakes his head then tucks it down again. A white blot on the shelf wedged in between two chestnut coloured hens. Warm. The wind whistles through the gap in the door blowing cold air that lifts a feather, which curls down onto the straw floor. The hens shuffle where they roost, their combs flopped to one side. A blackbird sweeps past - lands in the ash tree whose branches overhang the coop - disturbing a twig that spins onto… Continue

The rain, forecast yesterday but driven by gales which had arrived overnight, had blown most of the leaves out of sight along with the remains of the summer. It was autumn now and the water table was rising, turning the dips in the fields into pools of marshland where tufts of couch grass reached up through the water like drowning fingers waving in the wind. He found a dry place to sit on a mound between the roots under a tree at the edge of the field. His head was like sheet music, the black… Continue

He’d said, why don’t we meet at Carnforth station – you know – where they filmed Brief Encounter, we can go and have something to eat in the cafe, spend a few hours there, it’ll be a nice trip out. I hadn’t seen my father for several years and I’d always loved travelling on trains, we used to go on steam trains when I was small, he would hold my hand and I’d watch as the iron wheels steamed past then ground to a halt, hissing like snakes. I bought a day saver ticket, took the train and waited… Continue

... try Twitter. Robert has. Extreme micro-blogging. Post updates from wherever - whenever. 140 characters or less. I'm there too - god, more procrastination.

[and can someone please tell me - are we supposed to write our blog posts in six sentences too? Though you can bet if we don't have to they will turn out to be just that! I have even counted some of them ... some are, some aren't - so, what's the story?!]